Flick
by drgnfly23
Summary: Jasper waits for the army of newborns in Eclipse.


Flick

SM owns it all, except the Zippo. She can't have everything can she?

Flick...flick...click.

Flick...flick...click.

I sat flipping the silver Zippo lighter in anticipation of today's battle. This Zippo I had had since they first arrived on the scene in the nineteen-thirties. I had used it to light fires in our many fireplaces, but never on a vampire. This would be the first, and hopefully last time for that. I never wanted to see another vampiric battle again, if I could help it.

The air was thick with the emotion of steeled nerves of my family. My petite wife stood stood strongly beside me, her tiny hand in mine giving me strength. My family had trained for this. I had spent years fighting, but for what cause? Territories and power? This battle would be the most important I had ever fought. I glanced up to the mountain where my brother and his mate were hunkered down. The sun was not yet up, but we were ready and waiting for this epic fight to come to an end. I knew we would come out the victors. Love does that. Who knew that what I had once chased to sustain me would one day become one who would show me a fathomless depth of love? A feeling I had yet to ever experience, other than with my own wife.

"They'll be fine, Jasper," Alice breathed next to me. I turned to look at her. I let my eyes rove over her face and into her eyes. "I know, Alice. It's you I worry about. I know I can be an overprotective fool, but I'm not sure what I would do without you. I know we hated for Edward to run off to get himself destroyed by the Volturi, but if I thought you were gone for good I can't say I wouldn't do the same."

"Jasper! Don't talk like that. We're going to be around for a long time, long enough to see this through and deal with whatever gets thrown our way." I searched her face again and knew in my heart of hearts, she was determined to see us through whatever. And right now our whatever consisted of dealing with a sadistic vampire hellbent on killing my brothers mate and that just wouldn't do. I gave my wife's hand a gentle squeeze as I looked around the rest of my family.

Emmett and Rosalie were playfully going through some last minute sparring. I was thankful we were in a big open field. Where anticipation and nerves should have been the prevalent feeling from them it was only secondary to their lust. Only Emmett would turn serious sparring into a time of foreplay. I quickly averted my eyes to the other couple standing to right of Alice and me.

Carlisle and Esme. They were the epitome of love and caring. I strived to be half the man Carlisle was in endurance and tolerance of that which we naturally craved. I knew I could never become a doctor like him, but to teach psychology or sociology at a university would be better than suffering through another few years of high school again. That was my ultimate goal to teach. But I had to be able to handle a simple papercut. I flinched at my own thoughts, refusing to reminence over that depressing time in our lives. I had been forgiven by all for that mishap. Well, everyone except myself. Which is why I stood proudly today to defend a new member of our family. Hoping to absolve myself of nearly killing my brother's betrothed. They weren't engaged, but we all knew it was coming and really, their souls made them betrothed whether they knew it or not.

The feelings that were swirling around me were strong, but they all seemed to be radiating the same thing, defending one of our own. As the sun rose from the East and began to lighten our day I knew I had to say something to get all of our heads in the game. I looked back down at the Zippo in my hand. Having one of these back when I was fighting for Maria would have made burning the bodies that much easier rather than using flint and tender to detroy the remains. Such a simple machine really, and the ease of refilling the fuel made it a definite keepsake. I flicked it one more time, then placed the cool metal in the pocket of my jeans. I stepped forward and turned around. My family stopped and looked at me. I took an unneeded deep breath before speaking. "Two of our own are up there." I turned my head towards the mountain before looking at my family. "We are here to defend one of them who is too fragile to fight for herself. Today, we fight for our heart, her heart and Edward's heart. Today, we take out the final equation of fear in our world for her. Please do not give up. She did not give up for us, when we thought all hope was lost, she fought. She saw things no human has lived to tell about. She protects us with our secret, let's protect her with our strength." While most generals would have sat upon horseback yelling out their battle speech such as this while wearing chainmail and holding a spear. I was talking in my normal voice, pacing on foot, wearing only jeans, tshirt and leather jacket. My spear was my wits and knowledge of battling newborns. The tip of my spear, a mere Zippo. My family seemed to straighten a little taller, tighten their eyes a bit more and determination to win took precedence over any other emotion. I nodded fiercely before taking my wife's side again. She looked up at me, love and pride came from her. I looked deep into her eyes again and we stayed there for what seemed like hours, but could have been a few minutes before I saw movement out of my peripheral vision.

There had been many debates in our household regarding God and our souls. But I knew Bella had a soul and at this point in time I would ask for any help I can get. I sent up a quick prayer asking for His help and guidance. And if He thought to help us, please give us that little bit of strength we would need to see us through to the end.

The army of newborns were here.

We fought hard, the wolves in tandem with us. The newborns fought harder, but with only strength rather than knowledge on their side, we easily over took them. Soon all that was left was piles of rubble. From a distance it would look like stones piled there in the meadow. But the moving, twitching pieces trying to reconnect themselves proved to us this was no ordinary pile of rocks. When I was sure we had taken care of the masses I removed the Zippo from my pocket.

Flick...flick...click.

The flame caught the tender I had in my left hand. Once I was sure the wind wouldn't extinguish the small flame I placed it under the pile in front of me. I moved to the other side and repeated the process. Soon the small flame from my Zippo had created a large inferno, a billow of purple smoke climbing towards the clouds. A sign to anyone who would know that a battle had been fought and won today. Another glance towards the mountain revealed a smaller plume of the same smoke. Edward had fought hard, too. I was unsure who he had battled, but with the lack of red hair in my pile, I was almost certain the general of this small army was running again.

My small machine had completed its job. Before placing it into my pocket once again I felt the cool metal, flipping open the lid I made it flicker once more. Flick...flick...click.

* * *

><p><strong>This OS has been rattling around in my head for nearly a year. Hopefully it can FINALLY leave me alone. Not a huge story, but I could just see Jasper there in the field flicking his Bic. But since Bic only came around in 1973, I needed something older and Zippo is more classic than a Bic. Jasper exudes class, don't you think? Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it. **

**~drgnfly23**


End file.
